This movie feels like it’s been a long time coming. For me, Terminator 2 was the pinnacle of sci fi movies and the hints given about the world post-Judgement Day were tantalizingly brief. Then we had the shambles that was Terminator 3, it’s saving grace being that dubbing outtake, but at least we got to see how the world ended. Now it’s time to see what comes after.

Terminator: Salvation is set in 2018, in the thick of the war against the machines and Skynet. And humans are losing. This post-apocalyptic world is miserable and depressing, a wasteland where humans are hunted, killed or used for experiments that will eventually lead to the T-800 line of the original films. It’s a bleak and stark depiction of a world that you really don’t want to live in. It’s also one in which death row inmate Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) wakes up in. He’s just as lost as we are in this strange new world but that’s part of what makes him such a curious protagonist.

When we last saw John Connor, the world was ending and he and his wife-to-be Kate, where sheltering in a bunker as the world ended around them. Now John (Christian Bale) is a foot soldier (he’s not quite THE John Connor yet) in the on-going war and Kate (Bryce Dallas Howard) a doctor. Despite being a grunt in the militarized Resistance, John acts almost as a guardian angel for his teenaged father Kyle Reece (Anton Yelchin) and broadcasts radio messages to the Resistance while covertly aiming them directly at his would-be father.

The special effects are – from a film by McG – stunning. The Terminators are all disturbing in their own way and there’s plenty of action to be found. Sadly the best bits of the film are in the trailers – including the revelation about why Marcus is alive after his execution. There’s a nice cameo of a CGIed Arnold too, just for the fans of the previous three films. It’s great to see more of the mythology of the series though, even if Marcus’ existence is a pulled thread in the web of the film, his presence is flimsy and stretches the suspension of believe that little bit far.

Still it’s not a bad film (not as bad as T3 anyway), even if it was impossible not to see Anton Yelchin as Chekov, but with a non-Russian accent. If you want some fun without needing to think, then Terminator: Salvation is a fun science fiction romp through a dark future where hope still springs eternal.